indianasmith
Archeologist, Theologian, Elder Scrolls Addict, and a
B-Movie Kraken
Karma: 2591
Posts: 15182
A good bad movie is like popcorn for the soul!
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« on: April 21, 2018, 06:35:36 PM » |
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It's April 21, 2018. 182 years ago today, shortly after 3 PM, a ragged force of some 1000 tired, angry, frustrated volunteers charged a camp full of about 1400 Mexican soldiers commanded by the President of Mexicon, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The Mexican army was caught by surprise and overwhelmed in a matter of moments, abandoning their barricades and fleeing. By the end of the day, some 650 Mexicans were killed and around 700 captured. Santa Anna, seeing his army collapse around him, tried to escape but was captured the next morning, cowering in the cattails on the bank of Buffalo Bayou. When he was brought before a tired, cranky, wounded Sam Houston, El Presidente tried to bluff it out. "Congratulations, sir," said Santa Anna through his intepreter. "You have vanquished the Napoleon of the West." "Tell that to the men of the Alamo and Goliad, you murdering son of Satan!" Houston snapped back. The Texians were eager to hang Santa Anna from the nearest tree, but Houston refused. "You men will settle for blood," he said. "I want Texas!"
And so the Republic of Texas born.
One more history lesson for the day. It was on this date, April 21, 100 years ago, that Captain Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron of Germany," flew his last patrol. The greatest ace of World War I with 80 kills to his credit, von Richthofen was hot on the tail of a British Sopwith Camel piloted by a young Lieutenant named Wilfred May, determined to make him number 81. The Baron flew too low over enemy lines in his pursuit, and dozens of gunners blazed away at his Triplane as it zoomed overhead, barely 100 feet above them. A single machine gun bullet struck von Richthofen in the heart, and his plane pulled up, then slowly nosed over and crash landed. By the time allied soldiers reached the famous solid red Fokker Triplane, von Richthofen was already dead. He was buried by the British with full military honors, and the next day a British patrol dropped a wreath over his squadron's aerodrome with a note attached: "In memory of Captain von Richthofen, our brave and chivalrous foe."
He was 26 years old.
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